Explain What Common Medical Practices Are Fueling The Resistance To Antibiotics

in their tracks -- every year, 2 million Americans become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics http://www.care2.com/greenliving/antibiotic-resistance-and-the-rise-of-the-superbug.html

Antibiotics-resistant organisms have become one of the most serious threats to public health, infecting over two million people and killing approximately 23,000 people annually.1 According to the CDC, “total inappropriate antibiotic use,” such as prescribing unnecessary antibiotics or giving the wrong dose or duration, makes up to 50% of all outpatient antibiotic use,2,3 and in 2009, the United States spent $10.7 billion on antibiotics, indicating that there is a lot of potential money to save.4

A current predicament in the field of science is antibiotic resistance against superbugs.Though fighting against superbugs; which can be defined as a strain of bacteria unable to be killed using multiple antibiotics, is now a large problem, in the past it was not. The evolution of resistance in bacteria due to antibiotic abuse and lack of product development has brought upon us once again the fear of a pre-antibiotic era; one where simple, once easily defeated infections could kill. Already, infectious diseases are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US and the 2nd across the entire world, and drug resistant superbugs send 2 million Americans to hospitals every year; killing 23,000 of those people. And any bacterium can quickly and easily become multidrug resistant, the leading cause of this being antibiotic misuse in both humans and animals.( "Clinical Infectious Diseases." The Epidemic of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections: A Call to Action for the Medical Community from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. UCLA Medical School. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.)

The problem is that antibiotics resistance has become a very big problem in todays society. Antibiotics are no longer effective against certain super-bugs such as MRSA.

Widespread use of antibiotics has been very controversial in the media as well in the general population. Due to these controversies, it is very misunderstood to how antibiotics work leading to many patients in the hospital setting wanting to take them when it is not necessary or refusing to take when it is necessary for their survival. Some of this controversy is due to antibiotic resistance, which has spread an alarming rate in the 21st century (Walsh, 2000). Antibiotic resistance is the result of very strong bacteria or microbes that are resistant to the antibiotic prescribed and those microbes accumulate overtime by their survival, reproduction and transfer, leading to increased levels of antibiotic resistance.

This video provided a stark look at a serious problem that faces us on the disease front, and it also lent a glimpse into a real possibility that looms over mankind: being thrust back to the time when we were powerless to stop bacterial infections. Scientific research may be our best hope to find new antibiotics capable of warding off pathogenic bacteria for a number of decades, until once again, they become resistant. Or perhaps, as in the case presented in the video of Fleming’s initial discovery of antibiotics (Rx for Survival, 2005), chance will favor us and someone will stumble upon a new

Dr. Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues, paints antibiotics as a negative force in the world that causes disease. Dr. Blaser has studied the role of bacteria in human disease for more than thirty years at Vanderbilt University, and has experience as the director of the Human Microbiome Project at New York University. He also works with the National Institute of Health on infectious diseases. Meanwhile, Dr. David Shlaes, author of Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm, focuses on the drugs’ ability to cure disease. Dr. Shlaes has worked for 30 years in anti-infective academia, industry, and consulting. He served as Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University for five years, and then moved to industry, where he became vice president of Infectious Diseases at Wyeth Research. Later, he took a position as executive vice president of research and development at Idenix Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and formed his own consulting company. He now works predominantly with biotech companies and venture capital firms in their evaluation of anti-infective companies. While they take different approaches, the two doctors concur that antibiotic resistance is a major problem and that society needs to find ways to slow it down. One way to slow down the spread of resistant bacteria is finding ways to ensure

Overtime, antibiotics have been favorable as well as negligent to society. Antibiotic usage is helpful to society because it kills and fights off bacteria in both humans and animals. With an increase in antibiotic usage, these bacteria have become resistant to certain drugs which reduce the chance of the bacteria being killed off and result in bacteria multiplying, causing increased harm to the infected. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2013), each year in the United States at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a result to these infections. Although multiple bacteria are antibiotic resistant, and those numbers will continue to rise, antibiotics should remain a staple in the treatment of diseases, as opposed to abandoning their use which will cause an increase in the prevalence of bacterial infections.

In today’s modern society, the use of antibiotics is becoming increasingly prevalent. Due to the global population’s increased usage of medicines, certain types of bacteria have developed antibiotic resistance, creating superbugs. Superbugs are bacteria resistant to multiple types of antibiotics, and have the ability to survive and even multiply despite antibiotic presence. This causes great danger to society, as individuals infected with these bugs cannot be treated because the antibiotics are made redundant. (State Government of Victoria, 2015) The looming threat of widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria raises the question, ‘Should

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Antibiotic resistance is the ability of microbes to resist the effects of drugs – that is, the germs are not killed, and their growth is not stopped. Although some people are at greater risk than others, no one can completely avoid the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections” (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Antibiotic resistance has a higher chance of occurring with the more antibiotics taken, as the body adapts more and more each time. The CDC has collected data across the country, and has concluded that the estimated number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance is 23,000, and that the number of illnesses is slightly higher than 2 million (“About Antimicrobial Resistance”). Already antibiotic resistance has affected millions of lives, and will continue to affect many more until antibiotic overuse is stopped

They believe that by following with plan that within 2020 they will reduce the amount of use of antibiotics not specifically need by 50%, in all 50 states they will monitor locals about the importance of these bacteria and administer assessments and technical aids to health care facilities. Also new antibiotic drug applicant's, unique therapeutics, and vaccines for pre-clinical examinations to clinical trials for treatment or prevention of human disease will increase to at least

Antibiotics are used incorrectly and become resistant when a patient misuses it. By overusing or underusing antibiotics, the bacteria will adapt and become resistance to the antibiotic. When people stop taking antibiotics to treat an infection before all the bacteria is wiped out, the existing bacteria survive, adapt, and multiply. When patients overuse the antibiotics, the antibiotics kill all the bacteria, including the good ones that help defend the body. Some of the bacteria will remain because of mutations that provide them with immunity and will continue to reproduce with developed resistance to the antibiotic, with the antibiotic having no effect and without any good bacteria left. Another way bacteria becomes resistant is through animals that have been given antibiotics. The bacteria can become resistant in animals and be transferred to humans through animal

While all other bacteria are destroyed by the antibiotics, that one single cell then multiplies. That population of prokaryotes can even spread the gene to other species through processes like conjugation or transduction, turning one mutation into a worldwide phenomenon. The mass overuse of antibiotics gives bacteria many more chances for successful mutants to arise and thrive, in turn leading to the situation of humanity today. Now “super-bacteria” like C. difficile, MRSA, and resistant-tuberculosis run rampant in society, causing hundred of thousands of deaths each year. They threaten to plunge humanity back into the dark ages of medicine.

If one were still not convinced of the legitimacy of the issue, then perhaps a licensed doctor of over two decades could make things clear. Melissa Dennison agreed to an interview over drug resistant bacteria, and when asked of drug resistant bacteria, she said, “There is a huge increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria. This is a very serious problem.” With first-hand knowledge and experience dealing with sick children, Dr. Dennison has seen a shift in prescribing methods reflecting a growing consciousness of the overuse of antibacterial drugs. She stated in the interview that intelligent doctors know to use antibacterial drugs sparingly,

2014; Pincock et al. 2012; Wilson et al. 2011). According to Huttner et al (2010), the use of antibiotics has reduced, with some decreased in indication of resistance as a result of awareness campaign. In Europe, for example, France had the highest rates of antibiotic consumption, between 2000 and 2007 an awareness campaign with the slogan “Antibiotics are not automatic” resulted in an average 27 percent decrease in rates of antibiotic prescriptions across all 22 regions of France. The greatest decreased was in children aged 6 to 15 years (Sabuncu et al. 2009). Moreover, the relationship between the government and ministry of health and agriculture, especially, is very essential to the development and implementation of antibiotic resistance policies by build political commitment and cooperation for combating antibiotic resistance. They need to devote time, money and resources to limit the expansion of this problem.